Changde has a long history. So far, more than 50 sites of the Old Stone Age have been discovered. At the site of the Yaner Cave, at the Yangquan Village of Shimen County, archaeologists have discovered the fossils of the right femur, molar and metatarsal bones of ancient people named the People of Shimen. Over 540 sites of the New Stone Age have been discovered here. The typical representative among them is the site of Pengtou Hill, which has a history of about 9,000 years and is named as the Culture of the Pengtou Hill. The carvings and symbols have been translated by linguists and are considered as the source of Chinese and even universal characters. On Pengtou Hill, at a prehistoric cave called Yuzhandong, we have found the oldest pottery and two and a half paddies, those of which are calculated to have existed for about 14,000 years. In 1997, at the Eighty Dang site of Lixian County, we also have found thousands of ancient paddies of the world and are named as the Ancient Paddy of the Eighty Dang. This discovery is of great significance to the research on the function of rice in agriculture and the tribe pattern of the early New Stone Age. It shows that the Middle reaches of the Changjiang River has a highly developed primitive civilization, which at least is comparable to that of the valley of the Yellow River, the cradle of Chinese civilization. Meanwhile, in the Chengtou Hill of Lixian County there exists an ancient city of 6,000 years and an oldest paddy field of the world. So far, the Chengtou Hill is the oldest site of ancient cities in our country. This site is regarded as one of the Chinese Ten Archaeological Discovery in the 20th century.
Changde City was constructed during the Warring States Period, which was 2,300 years back. It was anciently named Langzhou and Dingzhou. In 1117 A.D. in Song Dynasty, it was initiated with the name of Changde and was continually used till now.
From time immemorial, many renowned personalities have lived in Changde, such as a legendary figure Shanjuan who was as famous as Yao and Shun(two wise and able ancient Chinese emperors), Cheyin, a famous official in Eastern Jin whose spirit of “studying by the light of caught fireflies” inspired younger generations of his hometown Xinzhou in Jinshi County to strive to make progress, and Fan Zhongyan, who wrote the famous Accounts of Yueyanglou and had an important position in the Chinese literature circle. Many a person of virtue in culture such as QuYuan, Tao Yuanming, Liu Yuxi, etc. left here many masterpieces.
In modern times, there are lots of remarkable talents in Changde. Many outstanding people such as Lin Boqu, Song Jiaoren, Lin Xiumei, Jiang Yiwu, Shui Mengqi, Ding Ling, Jian Bozan etc. were all born and brought up here.
